Sacramento State’s Kim Kemper was nominated for the 2009 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award for her performance with the women’s soccer team.

She was one of 30 nominees recognized for their achievements in the classroom, their work in the community and athletic achievements.

The award will be given to 10 Division I soccer players halfway through the season.

Kemper is known for her work around the community with youth soccer camps. She enjoys training young athletes. She has also worked with the Student Athlete Committee.

“She does a lot of volunteer work. Anything we need her to volunteer for, she’s right there,” said Sac State head coach Randy Dedini.

Kemper has been noticed for being an exemplary student. She earned academic honors as well for excelling in the classroom. Dedini said she is one of the team’s top students.

During the season, with training, practices, road games and schoolwork, Kemper said she has little time for everything else, but she feels like she has maintained a good balance. She added that the hours of hard work she puts into soccer are worth it.

“It was definitely hard coming in my freshman year, getting used to it. Now going into my fourth year. I pretty much have it under control. It’s really time consuming when we are traveling, especially in the fall. I have to make sure I take all of my schoolwork with me on road trips and make sure I’m disciplined to do the work,” Kemper said.

During her freshman year, Kemper scored an awkward header against San Jose State University and received the nickname “Kim the bobble head” for her stiff heading technique.

During this time, she focused on adjusting from playing club soccer to playing at the college level including balancing schoolwork and soccer.

By her junior year, Kemper had become the team captain and won an award for being the Big Sky Conference’s highest scoring women’s soccer player after completing the season with six goals.

Over the past three years with Sac State, Kemper attracted national attention by making the ESPN All-Academic Second Team and the Big Sky First Team on two occasions. She was also awarded an Offensive Most Valuable Player award twice and team MVP once while with the Hornets.

Senior forward Erin Tarantino, a close friend and fellow Hornets teammate said Kemper is spontaneous, fun and known for her loud laugh.

“She is the first to wake up on road trips and is very family-oriented. She has good values and accepts people with open arms,” Tarantino said.

Teammates and Dedini agree she is like an older sibling to the younger players, who look up to her as one person to go to for advice.

“You can’t not respect her because she is always giving all she’s got,” Dedini said.

He said that every time she is on the field she may not score, but she does a great job at being effective and creating plays; she has great stamina and a solid skill base. She has excellent decision-making and ball-handling skills. Kemper plays more minutes than any other forward on the team.

“Her work ethic is beyond everybody else’s,” Tarantino said. “She is easy to spot during games, because she is the player doing everything on the field.”

Tarantino feels that Kemper’s passion for the game is amazing; she never gives less than her best.

In order to stay on top of her game, Kemper said that she plays every game passionately, utilizes everything the team has worked on during practices, gives 100 percent effort and plays the best she can.

“In every game, whether it’s an easy team to beat or a hard team to beat, you’ve just got to have the passion,” she said.

Kemper has been the Hornets’ team captain for the past two years. The responsibility of captaincy is not something she takes lightly.

“I want to be a good leader for our team, a respected leader that can motivate our team,” she said.

After graduation, Kemper plans to try out for a Women’s Premier Soccer League semi-pro team and wants to keep playing soccer with indoor and outdoor leagues.

She is a liberal studies major and her other career goals include becoming a teacher. She said that soccer has helped her gain skills including leadership, communication, time management, teamwork and education.

“Learning how to balance school and work taught me a lot about responsibility,” Kemper said.

Jeondra Arrington can be reached at [email protected]